reddit(.)com/r/RWBY/comments/7vhn9d/the_reason_why_aura_and_semblances_are_not/
Thank you for coming to pick my brain on the matter, but in the future it would be more helpful to say something as well, so I have a better idea of what you expect from me.
There are a lot of people in that thread, so rather than trying to answer any specific poster, I’ll just briefly give my thoughts on “why the characters act like magic is more magical than what they can already do”.
First of all, magic is unknown; everyone on Remnant knows that Aura comes from their souls. No one knows where magic comes from. Suddenly they have to start asking themselves if all of those legends about the gods are true, and if they are true, which gods? All, some, or none that anyone has ever told them about?
Additionally, magic is extremely versatile. While an individual Semblance can do practically anything, no Semblance can do everything. Yet Salem, the Wizard, and the Maidens can effortlessly conjure and control all of the physical elements and energetic forces of the world, biologically transform themselves or others, and who knows what else.
Furthermore, magic is extremely powerful. No Huntsman yet has a Semblance that exerts power on the scale of immediately summoning a thunderstorm out of nowhere and then banishing it just as easily.
Finally, magic is cheap. Dust is expensive. Weiss looks very much like a spellcaster, but she’s uniquely capable among the cast for her skill with multiple varieties of Dust. Even Cinder sticks mostly with one element, and she uses woven clothing instead of working with Dust directly like Weiss. I think we’re meant to assume Weiss can afford to be so good because she had endless supplies of Dust to practice with as a child, and no one else has that advantage. Someone who becomes a Seasonal Maiden immediately gains more elemental power than Weiss could ever have.
Magic isn’t just financially free, but Aura-free as well. Semblances require skill with Aura, and cost Aura to use. Amber continued to out-Weiss Weiss even after her Aura was broken.
So, magic is an out-of-context problem which is more powerful and versatile than Aura and Semblances, all of which can be really scary for people who trained their whole lives with the expectation that they would be among the strongest people in the world.
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